West Elm Credit Card? This Review Exposes The Good + Bad
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CreditCardGuru
Q: I just moved and hence, need to buy a lot of new furniture! While I was at West Elm today the associate gave me their credit card application and the “Design Dollars” rewards program seem to be a good deal. Are there any drawbacks?
A: Here’s a review of the pros and cons that you can expect with the West Elm credit card:
Pros
- Great Rewards: As you can probably guess, the most alluring thing about this card is the rewards program. It gives $25 Design Dollars for each $250 that is charged to the account. These Design Dollars can be spent on additional purchases and after reading the fine print, I don’t see any unexpected exclusions listed (can be spent on any merchandise at their stores, website, or an order through the catalog). Earning $25 for every $250 spent essentially means West Elm is giving a 10% rebate on credit card purchases.
- No Annual Fee: There is no fee for having the card.
Cons
- Very High Interest Rate: The application on the website didn’t list the APR so I called up customer service to find out and as of the time of writing the interest rate ranged from 24.99% to 26.99%. Obviously this is not cheap! Speaking of cardholder customer service, that phone number is 1-800.695.3988. I didn’t see it listed on the website and had to be transferred around, so there is the number to save you the hassle I went through.
- 0% Deferred Interest: Depending on the West Elm store you go to and your creditworthiness, you might be offered a promotional 0% rate. The length can vary but the phone rep told me that 6, 12, or 24 months seem to be the most common. However unlike a regular credit card this is deferred interest; if you don’t pay it off in full before the time is up, your account will be charged the interest on the full purchase going back to the date you bought the items. You have to be very careful when using these types of 0% deferred interest promotions because they don’t work like the 0% offers on a major bank credit card.
- West Elm Prices: There’s no arguing that West Elm makes great furniture for urbanites but a common complaint about them is their pricing. Something you definitely need to ask yourself is if a 10% rebate is a better deal than buying similar items elsewhere for significantly less?
Verdict?
The Design Dollars are an excellent program and if you plan on spending thousands, then the rebate can really add up. However you should only apply for a West Elm credit card if you have the discipline to pay off the bill in full every month –or– pay off every penny before the deferred interest kicks in on the 0% offer.
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Written or updated Sept 2011
I actually don’t have an issue with the way West Elm does the design dollars program…after all, any retailer’s programs are designed to get you back into the store and all retailers love for you to buy on the store issued credit card.
What I do have a problem with is the customer service for the West Elm credit card. I just tried calling “customer service” to report that my bill was delivered to a neighbor’s mailbox and now I can’t get payment to them by the due date (tomorrow). There was not an option for me to speak to someone on this matter…instead I got caught several times (I hung up and redialed a couple of times) in an endless loop of options that didn’t suit my needs.
I did find that for a $15 fee, I could pay my West Elm credit card via my checking account over the phone…well, I only owe $13.97 so that’s not happening!
West Elm credit card customer service is my main credit card company’s new best friend. I will not be using my West Elm credit card again – - the customer service just isn’t there.
I agree that the Design Dollars program is disappointingly limited, as well as deceptive. It is shocking that a major retailer like West Elm would institute such a restrictive and misleading type of rewards program. Not only that, but I don’t believe you get any refund – or store credit – if you return items paid for with Design Dollars. And NONE of this information is anywhere on West Elm’s site, nor is it communicated to customers in any way at time of purchase/credit card sign up. Verging on fraudulent.
One more thing: once they issue your design dollar card, it expires in about 3 months, so you only have a short time to use them.
Beware of the fine print with the West Elm Design Dollars!
This is how it works: at the end of each billing cycle, they tally up the design dollars in $50 increments. We had made a whole lot of purchases, so we had earned 450 design dollars. Then they send you the design dollars as a sort of coupon. We got two of these, one for $200, the other for $250.
We figured that these could be used like every other gift card or points card we’ve ever heard of, but we were wrong. It turns out, and this is spelled out in the fine print but not even hinted at anywhere else, that you have to spend all the design dollars on one coupon, or else you forfeit the rest.
Not knowing this, we bought some items online, which cost about $80 (note that you can’t use the design dollars on shipping or taxes). We used the $200 design dollar card/coupon/whatever it is, and only found out after the order was placed that the remaining $120 was automatically forfeited because we didn’t spend it all at once!
To me, this is outrageously dishonest. As I said, I’ve never heard of any rewards program that works like this, and it was very unclear that this was going to happen. I feel like we’ve been cheated out of $120.
So, be aware!